A Unit of Study About the Medieval Period: Choices & Dilemmas

Visual response to Beowulf (Reilly, 2015)

I. The Slipperiness of Background Knowledge: Whose?  

I have been hard at work designing a fifth grade unit of study focusing on the medieval period.  What motivates me most is the remembrance of a comment a child made last year in fourth grade.  I recorded the child's inquiry this way:

It's early morning in a fourth grade classroom in Newark, NJ and the children and their teacher are at work studying Greek mythology. Beyond the classroom windows the weather hints at the possibility of spring.  But March has already been fickle and most anything could occur. Against the quiet of the classroom you can hear cars and trucks rumble by--the highway that splits this city runs just a few feet from the school. And in this mix of sounds it is the voice of one boy that we must pay attention to.  

He turns and says to his teacher and classmates, "I've been thinking about the myths we are reading. How they are thousands of years old.  Do you think a thousand years from now people will think Christian and Muslim religions are myths, too?" from here

It's occasioning big questions that most interests me when I compose possible curricula.  I know the work is mostly about possibilities and less about certainties as curriculum is complicated conversation.  What gets engendered is almost always more interesting and compelling that what gets written.  So in the unit I'm currently composing I am thinking about the medieval period and why it resonates.  Mostly, I have been thinking how people at the time made sense of the world through spiritual, natural, or religious lens and how these lens would give way (in part) to naming the world through more scientific reasoning and then through valued economic systems.  As I write, I'm cognizant that I want to be leave room in the curriculum for students to be able to generate bigger questions about world naming and faith; reason making and the potential effect of that economic systems have on all of that.

As I write I'm reminded that the way is often not clear when writing curriculum.

II. Lots of Books: Check It Out Circles & Padlet

So, I have been assembling a lot of books, a couple of tasks, and just a few questions to help students get grounded--as best one might.  Here's the initial set of questions that will no doubt undergo revision:

1. What questions do you think are most important to pose about the this time period?
2. Based on your reading, what’s important to know about the Medieval period? 
3. Based on your reading, whose voices are represented?  Whose voices are missing? What do you make of that?
4. Based on your reading, what were some hardships people at that time faced? Who? How did they respond to these hardships? 
5. Based on your reading, what seems to matter most to people? What did they value? What did they believe in? 

Initially students will be introduced via Check it Out Circles (Sibberson & Szymusiak, 2003) to two collections of book--the first focusing on information about the time period and the second focusing on people (biographies) who lived during that time. Students will make initial book choices, partner and buddy read. They'll read as much as they like. While reading, I'd like them to be mindful of the questions--their own and the one's for the class.  As this unit is designed for midyear, there's a likelihood that some of these books may have already been read by students and if so, that will surely inform their peers' choices too. Students will post initial understandings of the text(s) and the period through Padlet--so that the larger community of students are able to read what their peers are thinking.  The postings will be organized using the set of questions.  So one could read a question and then read a lot of responses that were informed by reading different texts. As in most of the work I do, students' responses to the questions can take many forms: written, spoken, visual (still & moving), musical and so on... The beauty of Padlet is that one can post and link so media can easily be represented.

III. Book Clubs

After this initial opening, students will have some choices regarding a literary text they'd like to study with a small group of peers. The texts are either from the medieval period or about medieval legends or mythologies. They are brief texts--not novels. The clubs will establish questions, focus, and timelines after making a text selection. Students will have already been taught a set of response tools that they might select to use so as to (in)form their discussions. Whereas a goal of book clubs is for meaningful discourse to occur--the method is not in giving them a set of accountable talk tag lines as I think this may well inhibit thought, but rather a set of tools to help them make sense of text.

IV. Beowulf: Whole Class/Read Aloud Text

Once book clubs are launched, the students will also begin reading Beowulf.  This will be conducted as a teacher read aloud--although students will have copies of the text in hand. Beowulf is meant to be heard. It is here that the question about beliefs and values will be more acutely studied and the use of drama and art making will play a larger role. As students will have experienced a lot of methods of text analysis by this time in the year, they will co-design the engagements that they most value. Knowing some of the students I can imagine the use of Minecraft showing up.  We'll see.

Below is the bibliography of written texts (I haven't curated the visual ones yet). If you have other suggestions, please let me know.  Thanks:)

Texts: 

Whole Class/Read Aloud Text

1. Morpurgo, Michael. (2006). Beowulf. Illustrated by Michael Foreman. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. (1180L)

Informational Texts for Partner Reading

1. Allen, Kathy. (2011). The Horrible, Miserable Middle Ages: The Disgusting Details About Life During Medieval Times. North Mankato, MN: Capstone Press.  (850L)
2. Cels, Marc. (2004). Life on a Medieval Manor. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1070L)
3. Eastwood, Kay. (2003). Women and Girls in the Middle Ages. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1070L)
4. Eastwood, Kay. (2003). Places of Worship in the Middle Ages. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1090L)
5. Eastwood, Kay.(2003). Life in a  Castle. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1020L)
6. Eastwood, Kay. (2003). Medieval Society. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1060L)
7. Eastwood, Kay. (2003). The Life of a Knight. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1020L)
8. Elliott, Lynn. (2005). Medieval Medicine And the Plague. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1150L)
9. Elliot, Lynne. (2004). Children and Games in the Medieval Ages.  Minneapolis, MN: Crabtree Pub Co. (1110L)
10. Elliott, Lynn. (2004). Food and Feasts in the Middle Ages. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company.  (1170L)
11. Elliott, Lynn. (2004). Clothing in the Middle Ages. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1100L)
12. Elliott, Lynn. (2004). Medieval Towns, Trade, and Travel. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1140L)
13. Findon, Joan. (2004). Science and Technology in the Middle Ages. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1080L)
14. Galloway, Priscilla. (2003). Archers, Alchemists, and 98 Other Medieval Jobs You Might Have Loved or Loathed. Illustrated by Martha Newbigging. New York: Annick Press.
15. Gibbons, Gail. (1998). Knights in Shining Armor. New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. (930L)
16. Groves, Marsha. (2005). Manners and Customs in the Middle Ages. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1090L)
17. Johnson Sherri. The Medieval Plague. North Mankato, MN: Capstone Press. (620L)
18. Major, John S. (1996). The Silk Route: 7,000 Miles of History. Illustrated by Stephen Fieser. New York: HarperCollins. (1140L)
19. Scandiffio, Laura. (2009). Crusades: Kids at the Crossroads. Illustrated by John Mantha. New York: Annick Press
20. Steele, Phillip. (2009). History News: The Aztec News. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. 
21. Steele, Tara. (2003). Medieval Warfare. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1010L)
22. Tembeski, Donna. (2005). Medieval Law And Punishment. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1100L)
23. Trembinski, Donna. (2005). Medieval Myths, Legends, and Songs. Minneapolis, MN: Crabtree Pub Co. (1040L)
24. Whiting, Jim. Medieval Knights. North Mankato, MN: Capstone Press. (620L)
25. Whiting, Jim. Medieval Castles. North Mankato, MN: Capstone Press. (610L)

Biographical Texts for Partner Reading

1. Ashby, Ruth. (2006).  Caedmon’s Song. Illustrated by Bill Slavin. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. (No Lexile Level)
2. Conklin, Wendy. (2007). Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler: World Cultures Through Time. Huntington Beach, CA: Teacher Created Materials.(610L)
3. Demi. (2009). Rumi: Whirling Dervish. Tarrytown, NY: Marshal Cavendish.
4. Demi. (2009). Genghis Khan. Tarrytown, NY: Marshal Cavendish.
5. Demi. (2008). Marco Polo. Tarrytown, NY: Marshal Cavendish. (950L)
6. Demi. (2003). Muhammad. New York:  Margaret K. McElderry Books.
7. Denham, Joyce. (2008). Saint Francis of Assisi. Illustrated by Elena Temporin. Brewster, MA:  Paraclete Press. 
8. Engle, Margarita. (2010). Summer Birds The Butterflies of Maria Merian. Illustrated by Julie Paschkis. New York: Henry Holt. 
9. Goldberg, Enid. A (2009). Vlad the Impaler: The Real Count Dracula. Illustrated by Norman Itzkowitz.  New York: Scholastic. 
10. Goodman, Joan. (2001). A Long and Uncertain Journey: The 27,000 Mile Voyage of Vasco Da Gama (Great Explorers). Illustrated by Tom McNeely. New York: Mikaya Press. (990L)
11. Krull, Kathleen. (2010). Kubla Khan: The Emperor of Everything. Illustrated by Robert Byrd. New York: Viking Books for Young Readers. (1080L)
12. Look, Lenore. (2013). Brush of the Gods. Illustrated by Meilo So. New York Schwartz & Wade. (580L)
13. Mattern, Joanne. (2012). Geoffrey Chaucer: Medieval Writer (Primary Source Readers). Huntington Beach, CA: Teacher Created Materials.  (710L)
14. Matthews, Sally Schofer. (2001). The Sad Night: The Story of an Aztec Victory and a Spanish Loss. New York: Clarion Books. (950L)
15. Robertson, Bruce. (1999).  Marguerite Makes a Book (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum). Illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt. Los Angeles, CA:  J. Paul Getty Museum. (570L)
16. Ross, Stewart. (2014). Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air. Illustrated by Stephen Biesty. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.  (1150L) 
17. Rumford, James. (2004). Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta 1325-1354. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers. (650L)
18. Rumford, James. (2012). From the Good Mountain: How Gutenberg Changed the World. New York: Flash Point. (800L). 
19. San Souci, Robert D. (2010). Robin Hood And The Golden Arrow. Illustrated by E.B. Lewis. New York: Orchard Books. (930L)
20. Serrano, Francisco. (2012). La Malinche: The Princess Who Helped Cortés Conquer an Empire. Illustrated by Pablo Serrano. Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books. (No Lexile Level)
21. Sharafeddine, Fatima. (2015). The Amazing Discoveries of Ibn Sina. Illustrated by Intelaq Mohammed Ali. Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books. (No Lexile Level)
22. Sharafeddine, Fatima. (2014). The Amazing Travels of Ibn Battuta. Illustrated by Intelaq Mohammed Ali. Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books. (No Lexile Level)
23. Sis, Peter. (1991). Follow the Dream: The Story of Christopher Columbus. New York: Knopf.
24. Stanley, Diane. (2002). Joan of Arc. New York: HarperCollins. (980L)
25. Tembeski, Donna. (2004). Famous People of the Middle Ages. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. (1110L)
26. Waldman, Stuart. (2007). Magellan's World (Great Explorers). Illustrated by Gregory Manchess. New York: Mikaya Press. (No Lexile Level)
27. Wisniewski, David. (1999). Sundiata: Lion King of Mali. New York: HMH Books. (820L)

Book Club Texts

1. Chaucer, Geoffrey. (1982). Chanticleer and the Fox. Illustrated by Barbara Cooney. New York: HarperCollins. (840L)
2. Hodges, Margaret. (1990). Saint George and the Dragon. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. New York: Holiday House. (1080L)
3. Hodges, Margaret. (1993). The Kitchen Knight: A Tale of King Arthur. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. New York: Holiday House.
4. McCaughrean, Geraldine (Retold by). (1997). The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Puffin. 
5. Yolen, Jane. (1998). Merlin and the Dragons. Illustrated by Li Ming. New York: Puffin Books. (640L)

Medieval Times and Stories  - Independent Reading Texts
Avi. (2004). Crispin: The Cross of Lead. New York: Disney-Hyperion. (780L)
Avi. (2011). Crispin: The End of Time.  New York: Disney-Hyperion. (690L)
Biesty, Stephen. (2013). Stephen Biesty's Cross-sections Castle. New York: DK.
Bosse, Malcolm. Tusk and Stone.
Bulla, Clyde Robert. (2000). The Sword in the Tree. Illustrated by Bruce Bowles. New York: HarperCollins. (380L)
Coombs, Rachel. (2007). A Year in a Castle. Minneapolis, MN: Orpheus Books. (500L)
Cushman, Karen. (2012). The Midwife’s Apprentice. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers. (1240L)
Cushman, Karen. (2012). Catherine, Called Birdy. New York:  HMH Books for Young Readers. (1170L)
Cushman, Karen. (2011). Alchemy and Meggy Swann. New York:  HMH Books for Young Readers. (810L)
Dalkey, Kara. (1996). Little Sister. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers.
Dalkey, Kara. (1998). The Heavenward Path. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers.
De Angeli, Marguerite. (1998). The Door in the Wall. New York: Laurel Leaf. (990L)
Demi. (2011). Joan of Arc.  New York: Two Lions. (950L)
Fletcher, Susan. (1999).  Shadow Spinner. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. (710L)
Giblin, James Cross. (1997). When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS. Illustrated by David Frampton. New York: HarperCollins. (990L)
Grant, K.M. (2006). Blood Red Horse. New York: Walker Childrens.
Gravet, Christopher. (2007). Knight. New York: DK Eyewitness Books.  (1140L)
Green, Roger Lancelyn. (2008). King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. New York: Puffin. (1130L)
Green, Roger Lancelyn. (2010). The Adventures of Robin Hood. New York: Puffin. (1110L)
Gross, Gwen. (1985). Knights of the Round Table. Illustrated by Norman Green. New York: Random House Books for Young Readers. (340L)
Ingle, Annie. (1991). Robin Hood. Illustrated by Domenick D'Andrea. New York: Random House Books for Young Readers. (360L)
Kelly, Eric P. (1992). The Trumpeter of Krakow. New York: Aladdin. (1200L)
Langley, Andrew. (2011). Medieval Life. New York: DK Eyewitness Books.  (1120L)
Lattimore, Deborah Nourse. (1991). The Sailor who Captured the Sea: A Story of the Book of Kells. New York: HarperCollins.
Lloyd, Alison. (2010). Year of the Tiger. New York: Holiday House. (600L)
Macaulay, David. (2013). Castle. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers. (1180L)
Macaulay, David. (2013). Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction, Revised and in Full Color. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers. (1120L)
McCaughrean, Geraldine. (2003). The Kite Rider. New York: Harper Trophy.
Meehan, Bernard. (1995). The Book of Kells: An Illustrated Introduction to the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin. London, UK: Thames & Hudson.
Millard, Anne. (2012). A Street Through Time. Illustrated by Stephen Noon. New York: DK. (680L)
Morpurgo, Michael. (2004). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Illustrated by Michael Foreman. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. (1050L)
Morris, Gerald. (2009). The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great. Illustrated by Aaron Renier. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers. (830L)
Napoli, Donna Jo. (1993). Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. New York: Harper Teen.
Napoli, Donna Jo. (2006). Bound. New York: Simon Pulse.
O’Brien, Patrick. (1998). The Making of a Knight. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge. (760L)
Osborne, Mary Pope. (2002) Favorite Medieval Tales. New York: Scholastic. (860L)
Parks, Linda Sue. (2011). A Single Shard. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers.
Parks, Linda Sue. (2010). The Kite Fighters. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers.
Paterson, Katherine. (1998). The Sign of the Chrysanthemum. Illustrated by Peter Landa. New York: HarperCollins. (870L)
Paterson, Katherine. (1989). Of Nightingales that Weep. ew York: HarperCollins. (950L)
Platt, Richard. (2003). Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess. Illustrated by Chris Riddell. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. (1010L)
Pyle, Howard. (2005). The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. New York: Sterling. (1350L)
Williams, Marcia. (2008). Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. New York: Walker Books
Williams, Marcia. (2010). King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. New York: Walker Books
Yolen, Jane. (1996). Encounter. Illustrated by David Shannon. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers. (760L)

Unscripted Moments in A Writing Class: Learning from Papi's Cologne

I.

This morning in a fifth grade class, I read aloud a writing piece I had begun about the death of my father a decade ago and his penchant for wearing black socks with sandals. It was a difficult piece to read out loud, unfinished and raw, and I told the children this as I struggled to read.

A bit later in the class, a child told me that her writing piece, like mine, was a difficult one.
"How so?" I asked.
She motioned to her notebook where I could see pencil and blue pen markings all over a page, including lines of print crunched into the margins.  We had talked about rereading with a pen in hand and I could see that she had done so.  She said that it was a struggle to get on paper what she wasn't sure about.  I might have sighed at that moment.  I listened as she read aloud a narrative about memory and how at night when she is alone in her bed, when her home is quiet, she recalls the smell of her Papi's cologne and this triggers her to think about the man who no longer lives with her.

She's struggling to get the words just right and this I think is the more important lesson to learn than the actual writing.  We have been exploring narrative techniques and no technique prepares the writer for the struggle to say what must get said.

I listen as she rereads again, noticing this time she has also drawn her bedroom with herself in bed and a thought cloud above her that contains a man.

"It's a difficult story to tell and it is brave one for you to try." I say this to her, feeling the inadequacy of my words while knowing such words from me are most likely unnecessary.  She's flirting with the power that comes from telling something true. She is an agent acting.


II.

I am learning as I work each day with the children and their teachers that in writing workshop where there are no units of study to be employed or scripts to be memorized, or prescribed evidence to be mined--that the present is mostly all we have. And, there is no grander thing than the present unfolding before us as we make it.

It is in the making that deep learning takes hold.

III.

Later in the day, well into the evening, my husband finds me and tells me about a protracted lesson for seventh graders he has read in preparation for some work with a teacher. The teacher is working from a script and the kids need to debate (using sentence starters) an action the speaker in a poem took.  The students' task is to "find evidence to support or refute the narrator's (not speaker) decision to take a specific road" in Frost's "The Road Not Taken."  They need to ponder (and of course find obligatory evidence) about whether the speaker's turn up the untrodden road was a good or bad decision (I kid you not).

I cringe, thinking about Billy Collins's poem, "Introduction to Poetry," where readers want to tie a poem to a chair "and torture a confession out of it."

Best get out the rope, I tell my husband.

IV.

Scripted lessons, especially jam-packed ones, leave little room for the unexpected, the unplanned, the unimagined, or the turn down an untrodden road.  There simply is no room left for anything novel to arise--such as your Papi's cologne--as time ceases to be about what is emerging and instead presupposes an epic construct.  Scripted classrooms are worlds where the action has already been performed.  The task in such narrow, poorly lit places is to mime.

I think of these scenarios as ones that lead to entropy--where the available energy in a room is sucked out quicker then it can be replaced as students dutifully (or not) complete the assignments.  I mean, really, how can new breath even happen in an epic world?    I think of Maxine Greene who wisely told us:

"We need to recognize that the events that make up aesthetic experiences are events that occur within and by means of the transactions with our environment that situate us in time and space” (p. 130).

Us situated in time and space by means of the transactions we have with our environment?  Not in a scripted classroom.  Already made stuff being enacted over and over in thousands of classrooms defy the physics.

Surely, we might want more for our learners and for ourselves. Surely we might want the satisfaction that comes when the child holds his or her power and pen in hand.

50 Things Fifth Graders Wonder About...

I have spent the last week introducing writers' notebooks to a class of fifth graders at a school in Newark, NJ.  One of the entries students began were a list of things they currently are wondering about. This is a list that they will add to throughout the year.


I modeled for them an entry I had started where I wondered about two things:

• What are the types of things that can’t get lost? (I'm thinking about a line from Neil Young's song, Old Man. He says, “Give me things that don’t get lost…”)
• What are multiverses?  Is there an exact you and me functioning in some parallel universe?

Then, I got out of the way and the students took over, recording in their notebooks the kinds of things they wondered.  We shared some and then returned again to the notebooks to record more. After we concluded (about 6 minutes), students wanted answers to their wonderings so we spent the next 20 minutes researching and recording interesting and important information in our notebooks.



Here's a partial list of students' wonderings:

1. Why are dogs color blind?
2. Is time travel possible?
3. What made all of the universes?
4. Is the Earth being duplicated?
5. I wonder about this quote: "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen I thought we agreed to not lie to each other."
6. Why do people say, "It's going to be okay," when it is not?
7. What is beyond our universe?
8. How did scientists learn about the moon before traveling to it?
9. How many different worlds are there?
10. How did Hawaii form out of a volcano?
11. Why is there animal cruelty?
12. Why do cats have sharp claws?
13. Why are people's noses, mouths, eyes, and ears different?  Why are there variations?
14. Who was Charles Darwin?
15. Is Area 51 real?
16. What caused dinosaurs to become extinct?
17. Why are there different sounds in the world?
18. Will we cure breast cancer?
19. Why do we have a zodiac?
20. How was the idea of a Bermuda Triangle formed?  
21. Where are the 10 dimensions? How can I understand each?
22. How many moons are in our universe?
23. How do myths begin?  Are they true?
24. How many universes are there?  Are any the same as ours?
25. Why do people adopt wild animals like tigers, cheetahs, or lions?  What prompts this?
26. Is there really a man named, Moth Man?
27. Are aliens real or made up?
28. Why do most people think money is the solution to their problems?
29. Why do some people take their anger out on others when it was someone else who made them mad?
30. What are crop circles?
31. Why are there only 12 months?
32. Who created homework?
33. What will humans look like 1, 000, 000 years from now? How will we evolve?
34. How are snowflakes alike?
35. What will happen next?
36. Are there parallel universes? Can we move between them?
37. Can you time travel and still live?
38. When will my dad's work calm down?
39. How do adaptation and variation connect?
40. What would happen if the Earth died?
41. What is the most endangered species in the world?
42. Are there superheroes? Can we believe in them?
43. Why are some things in the world dangerous?
44. How are wormholes created?
45. Are there medicines that can cure AIDS?
46. How do brain tumors form?
47. How man planets have water on them?
48. What's evolution?
49. Can you curve a bullet like they are shown in movies?
50. Can we get rid of radioactive waste safely?

Fabulous Global Books for Fifth Grade

Mirror & Window Books
Addasi, Maha. 2010. Time to Pray. Arabic translation by Nuhu Albitar. Illustrated by Ned Gannon. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill Press. (Bilingual text: English & Arabic).
Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1997. Friends From the Other side/Amigos del otro lado. Illustrated by Consuelo Méndez. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
Coy, John. 2003. Strong to the Hoop. Illustrated by Leslie Jean-Bart. NY: Lee & Low.
Draper, Sharon. 2010. Out of My Mind. NY: Atheneum.
Grimes. Nikki. 2006. The Road to Paris. NY: Putnam.
Krishnaswami, Uma. 2011. The Grand Plan to Fix Everything. Illustrated by Abigail Halpin. NY: Atheneum ( Kindle version).
Perez, Amada Irma. 2002. My Diary from Here to There/Mi Diaro De Aqui Hasta Alla. Illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
Rumford, James. 2008. Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad. NY: Roaring Press Books.

Text to Text

I. Japanese Interment

Chin, Steven A. 1992. When Justice Failed: The Fred Korematsu Story. Illustrated by David Tamura. NY: Steck Baghn.
Cooper, Michael L. 2002. Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp. NY: Clarion.
Layson, Annelex Hofstra. 2008. Lost Childhood: My Life in a Japanese Prison Camp During World War II. Illustrated by Herman J. Viola. Washington D.C. National Geographic.

Lee-Tai, Amy. 2006. A Place Where Sunflowers Grow. Illustrated by Felicia Hoshino. San Francisco: Children’s Book Press.

Lieurance, Suzanne. 2009. The Lucky Baseball: My Story in a Japanese-American Internment Camp. Enslow Publishers.

Means, Florence.1993. The Moved Outers. NY: Walker Books.

Mochizuki, Ken. 1993. Baseball Saved Us. Illustrated by Dom Lee.! NY: Lee & Low.

Noguchi, Rick & Deneen Jenks. 2001. Flowers for Mariko. Illustrated by Michelle Reiko. New York: Lee & Low. 
Savin, Marcia. 1995. Moon Bridge. NY: Scholastic.

Shigekawa, Marlene. 1993. Blue Jay in the Desert. Illustrated by Isao Kikuchi. Chicago, IL: Polychrome Publishing Corporation.

Stanley. Jerry. 1996. I Am an American: A True Story of Japanese Internment. NY: Crown Books for Young Readers.
Tunnell, Michael and George W. Chilcoat. 1996. The Children of Topaz: The Story of Japanese-American Internment Camp. NY: Holiday House.
Uchida, Yoshiko. 1996. The Bracelet. Illustrated by Joanna Yardley. New York: Putnam.
--------------------. 1995. The Invisible Thread: An Autobiography. Surrey, UK: Beech Tree.


2. Thanksgiving
Bruchac, Margaret M. (Abenaki), and Catherine Grace O’Neill. 2001. 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.
Hunter, Sally M. (Ojibwe). 1995. Four Seasons of Corn: A Winnebago Tradition. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications.
Peters, Russell M. (Wampanoag). 1992. Clam-bake: A Wampanoag Tradition. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications.
Swamp, Jake (Mohawk). 1995. Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message. New York: Lee & Low.

3. Civil Rights
Bausum, Ann. 2005. Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic.

Greenberg, David. 2008. A Tugging String: A Novel About Growing Up During the Civil Rights Era. NY: Dutton.

Haskins, Jim & Benson, Kathleen. 2006. John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement. Illustrated by Benny Andrews. NY: Lee & Low.

McWhorter, Diane. 2004. A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968. NY: Scholastic. 

Partridge, Elizabeth. 2009. Marching For Freedom: Walk Together Children an Don't You Grow Weary. NY: Viking. 
Rappaport, Doreen. 2006. Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round: Stories and Songs of the Civil Rights Movement. Illustrated by Shane W. Evans. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. 
Shange, Ntozake. 2009. We Troubled the Waters. Illustrated by Rod Brown. NY: Amistad.
Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2009. Birmingham, 1963. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong.
--------------------------------. 2004. Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins. Illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue. NY: Dial.

Text to World

from My Shoes & I

Anderson, M.T. 2005. Me, All Alone, at the End of the World. Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. Cambridge MA: Candlewick.

Bermann, Flemming. 2010. Global Warming for Young Minds: A Global Warming and Sustainability Guide For Children. Durham, CT: Eloquent Books.

Cherry, Lynne, Gary Braasch and David Sobel. 2010. How We Know What We Know about Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming. Nevada City, CA: Dawn Publications.

Fleischman, Paul. 2004. Seedfolks. Illustrated by Judy Pedersen. NY: Harper Trophy.
Laínez, René Colato. 2010. My Shoes and I. Illustrated by Fabricio Vanden Broeck. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill Press.
Parker, David L., Lee Engfer and Robert Conrow. 1997.

Stolen Dreams: Portraits of Working Children. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications.

Ringgold, Faith. 2004. What Will You Do for Peace? Impact of 9/11 on New York City Youth. Hamden, CT: InterRelations Collaborative.
Say, Allen. 2005. Kamishibai Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Shea, Peggy Dietz, 2006. The Carpet Boy’s Gift. Illustrated by Leane Morin. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House, Publisher.
Sheth, Kashmira. 2010. Boys without Names. NY: Balzer & Bray.
Williams, Mary. 2005. Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie.NY: Lee & Low.

Creating Visual Images

from The Sounds of Color

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. 1999. Jump Back Honey: The Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Illustrated by Ashley Bryan, Carole Byard, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Brian Pinkney, Jerry Pinkney and Faith Ringgold. New York: Hyperion.
Garland, Sherry. 2000. Voices of the Alamo. Illustrated by Ronald Himler. New York: Scholastic Press.
Hayes, Joe. 2004. Ghost Fever / Mal de Fantasma. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press.
Ihimaera, Witi. 2003. The Whale Rider. San Di- ego, CA: Harcourt.

Liao, Fu-Bin. 2006. The Sounds of Color: A Journey of the Imagination. New York: Little Brown & Young.
Maher, Ramona. 2003. Alice Yazzie’s Year. Illustrated by Shonto Begay. Berkeley, CA: Tricycle Press.
Nye, Naomi Shihab, (Ed). 1998. The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East. NY: Simon & Schuster.
Soto, Gary. 2006. A Fire in My Hands: Revised and Expanded Edition. San Diego, CA: Harcourt.
Woodson, Jacqueline. 2005. Show Way. Illustrated by Hudson Talbott. NY: Putnam.

Asking Questions
Brown, Don. 2004. Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Burleigh, Robert. 2011. Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Croses the Atlantic. Illustrated by Wendell Minor. NY: Simon & Schuster.
Demi. 2006. Su Dongpo: Chinese Genius. NY: Lee & Low.
Grimes, Nikki. 2003. Talkin’ About Bessie. Illustrated by E.B. Lewis. NY: Orchard.
Joseph, Lynn. 2001. The Color of My Words. New York: Harper Trophy, Reprint.
Medina, Tony.!2002. Love to Langston. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. NY: Lee & Low.
Nelson, Marilyn. 2001. Carver: A Life in Poems. Asheville, NC: Front Street.
Pappas, Theoni. 1991. Math Talk: Mathematical Ideas in Poems for Two Voices. New York: Wide World Publishing.

Inferring
Babbitt, Natalie. 1975. Tuck Everlasting. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Catrow, David. 2005. We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution. New York: Puffin.
de la Pena, Matt, 2011. A Nation's Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. NY: Dial.
Govenar, Alan. 2000. Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter. New York: Jump at the Sun.
Johnston, Tony. 2003. Any Small Goodness: A Novel of the Barrio. New York: Scholastic.
Joseph, Lynn. 2001. The Color of My Words. NY: Harper Trophy.
McKissack, Patricia. 2007. A Friendship for Today. NY: Scholastic.
Medina, Jane. 1995. My Name Is Jorge: On Both Sides of the River. Illustrated by Fabricio Vandenbroeck. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.
Morpurgo, Michael. 2004. Kensuke's Kingdom. NY: Scholastic.
Morrison, Toni. 2004. Remember: The Journey to School Integration. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Schertle, Alice. 2007. We. Illustrated by Kenneth Addison. New York: Lee and Low.
Yep, Laurence. 1996. Hiroshima. New York: Scholastic.

Determining Importance

Christensen, Bonnie. 2011. Django. NY: Flash Point.
Jackson, Donna. 2004. In Your Face: The FACTS About Your Features. NY: Viking.
Jurmain, Suzanne. 2005. The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Leacock, Elspeth and Buckley, Susan. 2001. Journeys in Time: A New Atlas of American History. Illustrations by Rodica Prato. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Morrison, Toni. 2003. Remember: The Journey to School Integration. San Diego, CA: Houghton.
Murphy, Jim. 2006. The Great Fire. NY: Scholastic.
Opini, Bathseba and Richard B. Lee. 2011. Africans Thought of It: Amazing Innovations. NY: Annick Press.
Pinkney, Andrea Davis. 2000. Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters. Illustrated by Steven Alcorn. San Diego, CA: Gulliver Books.
Skurzynski, Gloria. 2000. On Time: From Seasons to Split Seconds. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic.

Synthesis

Bley, Annette. 2007. And What Comes After a Thousand? La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller.

from And What Comes After a Thousand?

Landowne, Youme. 2004. Selavi, That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press.
Lawrence, Jacob. 1995. The Great Migration: An American Story. NY: Harper Trophy.
Mourlevat, Jean-Claude. 2006. The Pull of the Ocean. New York: Delacorte Books for Young Readers.
Nikola-Lisa, W. 2006. How We Are Smart. Illustrated by Sean Qualls. NY: Lee & Low.
Rockwell, Anne. 2002. Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. New York: Dragonfly.
Russell, Ching Yeung. 2009. Tofu Quilt. NY: Lee & Low.
Sis, Peter. 2003. The Tree of Life. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Thomas, Joyce Carol, Ed. 2003. Linda Brown, You Are Not Alone. The Brown V. Board of Education. Illustrations by Curtis James. New York: Jump at the Sun.